Couture

Abstract

Couture comprises eleven outfits staged during Paris Haute Couture week in the faded grandeur of the C18th Romanian Embassy, Paris. The looks ranged from pure minimalism (the ultimate jacket and monolithic silhouette) to utter fantasy (the extremities of romance and excess). As Boudicca’s first entry into the world of couture, the research process aimed to explore the boundaries between ready-to-wear
and couture to discover the point at which fashion shifts from being a product to an investment, from product design to fine art.
Process became key, and for this project every decision was a conceptual, informed choice and every element was uniquely
sourced: the best fabrics, regardless of cost; quality time given to styling and construction, with individual elements remade
many times and put together montage-style until ‘perfection’ had been achieved. Thus the best cashmere was sourced from an
Italian supplier, and pads for coat epaulettes were re-sculpted by hand time and time again. Time itself became a feature of the
collection with, for example, one outfit boasting hand-crafted silver buttons individually date and time-stamped to reflect the
precise moment at which they were made, thereby alluding to the complex sets of relationships between time and ‘value’ within
the art and fashion worlds.
Research for the collection drew on artist designers rather than fashion design history, with an eclectic range of sources,
including Leonardo da Vinci, the symbolist and surrealist movements (notably Leonora Carrington and Dorothy Tanning),
alongside such diverse influences as Sophie Calle, Victor Burgin, Jorge Luis Borges and old car magazines.
Paris haute couture week is the fashion world’s ultimate prestigious venue, and the honour of being invited to show there has
only been accorded to five independent design companies before. The Boudicca show made front page headlines in the
Independent (26.1.07); The Times (26.1.07) and inside pages Daily Telegraph (26.1.07) and Vogue May 2007.
Boudicca comprises Zowie Broach and Brian Kirby, who work as a duo, collaborating on all aspects of the research and creative
process